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Missing Malaysia plane MH370: What we know Missing Malaysia plane MH370: What we know
(6 months later)
The Malaysian government has officially declared the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014, an accident. The Malaysian prime minister has said part of an aircraft wing found on the island of Reunion is from the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 which went missing 17 months ago.
Despite an extensive international search in the southern Indian Ocean, no trace of the aircraft has been found. Officials confirmed that the recovery operation was ongoing but that the 239 people onboard are now presumed dead. The aircraft which had 239 people onboard was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014 when air traffic control staff lost contact with it.
Since the end of June, investigators carrying out the search have been focusing on a refined area covering 60,000 sq km 1,800km (1,100 miles) off the west coast of Australia. Najib Razak told reporters the work carried out to try and locate the Boeing 777 by 26 nations had been the "largest search in aviation history".
Despite an extensive search of the southern Indian Ocean, no trace of the aircraft was found until officials said a week ago that a wing fragment, known as a flaperon, had been found on the French island Reunion.
Encrusted in barnacles, it was washed up on the beach more than 3,700km (2,300 miles) away from the main search site.
Mr Najib said international experts "conclusively confirmed" it was from the missing aircraft.
The search
The hunt has changed in scope many times, starting in the South China Sea.
At its largest, it covered 7.68 million sq km (2.96 million sq miles) - a total of 2.24 million square nautical miles. This was the equivalent of 11% of the Indian Ocean and 1.5% of the surface of the Earth.
However, from 16 March, satellite images of possible debris and tracking data released by the Malaysian authorities appeared to confirm that the plane crashed in the Indian Ocean, south west of Australia.
After searching an area more than 2,000km (1,240 miles) south-west of Perth, the hunt switched more than 1,000km (600 miles) further north.
The search zone narrowed again in early April to an area of 850 sq km (328 sq miles) of the ocean floor - located close to acoustic signals detected by Australian teams.
A new refined search area was announced in June 2014, shifting the focus to an area covering 60,000 sq km 1,800km (1,100 miles) off the west coast of Australia.